The Stupid, It Burns.
Kaiser Medical has threatened to fire nurses, treating Covid-19 patients, if they wear an N95 mask. Even their own.
In New York, prison guards are forbidden to wear an N95 mask.
While China, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong have all mandated masks for everyone AND have done much better than the west at controlling this thing, our Idiots In Charge can’t learn from others.
WE KNOW:
Covid-19 has some amount of aerosol spread. How much is in question, but not the existence.
Covid-19 spreads rapidly to medical staff with any reduction in PPE from bunny suits or N95 + face shield.
Covid-19 spreads rapidly in prisons.
Between 15% and 50% of those who are tested as infected are asymptomatic spreaders.
Countries using strict social distancing, quarantine, masks, and universal testing win.
Those with sloppy weak “shelter” requests, no masks, testing only the symptomatic: FAIL HARD.
It sure looks to me like the goal is to go ahead and infect everyone and just let the old and ill die. Europe and the USA will fail given our current practices.
https://theintercept.com/2020/03/24/kaiser-permanente-nurses-coronavirus/
KAISER PERMANENTE THREATENED TO FIRE NURSES TREATING COVID-19 PATIENTS FOR WEARING THEIR OWN MASKS, UNIONS SAY
Akela Lacy
March 24 2020, 12:05 p.m.NURSES AT KAISER Permanente hospitals and clinics in California could be fired immediately for wearing their own face masks, according to unions representing nurses at the facilities. The news comes after nurses were ordered to reuse disposable protective gear to save supplies in the face of shortages brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The California Nurses Association and National Nurses United sent a flyer to members noting that Kaiser had threatened nurses with firing if they wear their own N95 masks, which offer a high level of protection from airborne contaminants, to work. “Kaiser has told nurses that if they’re seen wearing their personal N95 masks, they could be fired ‘on the spot’ for insubordination,” the flyer read. The unions did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Gee… heading into a massive nurse shortage, think a Kaiser nurse could get a job where the good PPE is provided?
This pretty much lays it out.
Musings from the Chiefio 
Well that is not good news for us since we are Kaiser patients. Idiots. They will end up killing off their nurses or causing a walkout right when people need them most.
New York’s Ventilator Rationing Plan
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/03/18/new_yorks_ventilator_rationing_plan_142685.html
After learning that the state’s stockpile of medical equipment had 16,000 fewer ventilators than New Yorkers would need in a severe pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo came to a fork in the road in 2015. He could have chosen to buy more ventilators. Instead, he asked his health commissioner, Howard Zucker to assemble a task force and draft rules for rationing the ventilators they already had.
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It seems that everyone was planning for death. And plans haven’t changed.
M. Simon
We had a Health Minister, later Prime Minister, who in 2005 who wanted a policy/method of dealing with a pandemic. He got rolled as PM by someone keen on “doing something about CO2 emissions” and his policy seems to have disappeared.
His successor, in turn, got rolled because of incompetence. It is ironic that this successor can’t prance around boosting his “autobiography” because of the virus, and that his book has been cut in its release price. The ‘games’ politicians play.
I suggest that Kaiser back off and eat very humble pie.
If any nurse got ill while using their re-used masks, Kaiser would be liable legally in the bundle of civil suits that emerged.
And I doubt that their insurance would ever cover such idiocy !
Re: Bill in Oz: OTOH, their lawyers (assuming any survive) will argue that the nurses weren’t wearing the officially approved, sanitized, blessed, and exorcised version of the N95. This is the same problem the US military has had in the Sandbox over the last couple decades – they put the lawyers in charge rather than the war fighters. KP apparently did the same thing, putting lawyers in charge rather than the docs / nurses. Cheers –
Would a lawn mowing mask work?
@Kent:
Any mask helps. Reducing the size of initial infection exposure gives more time for immune response and lower severity, or complete lack of symptoms / disease.
Depending on your type of “lawnmowing mask” it can be more effective than an N95 mask and much more effective than a surgical mask. Some constructon masks are N100, I.e. removes 100% of particles. This are the rubber or plastic form fitting respirators.
Painting respirators are even better, often including organic vapor removal with activated carbon.
The major problem with high end respirators is maintenence and contamination of self in handling. Virus on the outside and the user touches it before decontamination.
I’ve seen Cuomo whining about the Federal Government response for NY. I’m also seeing reports that people have fled NYC. Hmmmmm … where did that happen before??? Oh yeah, CHINA!!
Cuomo and de Blasio should spend less time whining and more time tending to their people. THEY should have locked down travel to and especially FROM NYC long ago. NYC people are scattering to the four winds and taking more virus with them. I hope Trump points out this idiocy.
As I posted yesterday in U.S. time-zones (12:01 am on March 25 per Chiefio‘s GMT) [*]:
Airports in Florida continue to allow approx. 150 flights each day to land in-state from New [effin’] York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. What the hey-yell?
Are our State of Florida officials sui-[bleepin’]-cidal? As only a half-aßed measure, Orlando International Airport (MCO) will be quarantining arrivals from those Cov-19-infested states, but only those flights that arrive here directly from those states.
I’m now concerned that there was no mention of the Central-Florida air-travel back-door, which is deceptively named “Orlando”-Sanford International Airport) (SFB) (it’s really in or near Sanford up in Seminole Co.). Flights to either airport really ought to be forbidden to land!
Isn’t the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which controls the civilian airports and air-travel industry, a part of the Executive Branch, and therefore isn’t Pres. Trump ultimately in charge of it, granting him authority for executive decrees?
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Note *: <https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/23-march-2020-wuhan-china-covid-19-restarting-economy/#comment-127265
Yea, NYC is exporting their irresponsibility. But then that is what liberals do.
As with so much of what’s been said here, a lo is really good practical common sense: My background in Agric. & Livestock & Seed cropping tells me to practice GOOD HYGIENE: do NOT allow contamination: If in Doubt , do nowt ( ie allow nowt ) . THis means have a local LOCKDOWN.
We have all survived the 2 week Christmas shutdown. ….. People have to learn that they should NOT live from Hand to mouth and go partying every night or whatever the reader may wish to offer as a counter argument. Education education education starts at a young age IN THE HOME.
Slightly OT but when we put all our eggs in ONE BASKET, it’s not rocket science to understand what can happen to our future when the LAST basketful is dropped. Any need to go around looking for chickens? what came first?
More than 40 varieties of the virus according to testing in Iceland. https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/03/25/Coronavirus-Iceland-s-mass-testing-finds-half-of-carriers-show-no-symptoms
Food for thought: Chocolate Fountain in a public restaurant.
I used to use the phrase “Thought for Food”. I think this one is ” Food you would Die for ” ….or is it Dying for the Food ? an’ no cheesy con do its either, please! Stay safe.
@Tim:
RNA viruses change rapidly. There will be thousands of variations in the wild. This is normal. Only changes that change the behavior of the virus will matter.
@Jimw:
Why restaurants are closed…
@Saighdear:
That’s what bothers me about our “leaders” globally. Any farmer with one sick animal in a herd knows how to fix this, yet the “leadership” is busy butt covering and grabbing gold where they can.
You isolate the sick animal, disinfect the environment, clean everything like crazy including your boots and clothes, and either test or observe your animals to find and stop further cases; and you by God don’t have folks moving from population to population without a good scrubbing, nor mixing animals from differeng populations.